


I'd Like to Repeat The Question

by fictorium



Category: Good Wife (TV)
Genre: Adultery, F/F, Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-03
Updated: 2012-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-17 15:58:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/553307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Bishop's arrested, Alicia gives Kalinda a ride home. It's questions and answers and things going a little differently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd Like to Repeat The Question

**Author's Note:**

  * For [schwarmerei1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/schwarmerei1/gifts).



"You made a new friend," Kalinda says, slipping into the passenger seat without waiting to be invited.

 

"I did," Alicia admits, throwing the folder with the signed Guardian Agreement into the backseat. "Back to the office? Or I can drop you at home. Unless you've moved."

 

"I haven't moved," Kalinda says, that terse little smile back again. "What about you? I'm on the way to your apartment, but not Highland Park."

 

Alicia turns to her, lit only by the fuzzy orange glow of the streetlight, a challenge dying on her lips.

 

Of course Kalinda knows. Kalinda knows everything, and Alicia's left to drum her fingers on the steering wheel, the engine still idling.

 

"We're not..." Alicia flounders, because judges and partners and donors she's learned to smooth talk, but with Kalinda it's always slipped right off. To discuss Peter with her, after everything, feels as strange as it feels right. "We are still married."

 

"Right," Kalinda says, still looking ahead at the road they're not yet driving down. "You are." Her accent is skewed, always just a little off at the best of times, but Alicia wonders if the husband is to blame (in her limited experience, after all, the husband is always, always to blame).

 

"So," Alicia says, putting the car in drive and pulling away from the curb. "I'm heading to the apartment."

 

"That's fine," Kalinda says, flicking through her notebook. "Drop me off there, I have somewhere to be."

 

"You always do," Alicia says, turning the corner, and the smile is not as wry as it might be. "You think Bishop's gonna dodge this bullet?"

 

"You're the lawyer," Kalinda says. "So I'd say he's got a good shot," she adds, and it sounds almost kind. When Alicia rolls to a stop at an intersection a few minutes later, she risks another glance. Kalinda's head is pressed against the window, tiredness weighing down her eyelids. She looks so young, so close to being as helpless as a regular person, that Alicia wants to find a blanket and put it over her.

 

"Tired?" Alicia asks, fiddling with the heater and waiting for the light to change.

 

"Yeah," Kalinda confirms. "The FBI is always... complicated."

 

"Because of Lana?" Alicia presses, because this is supposed to be the age of openness between them, and there's something about that situation that intrigues her.

 

"Partly," Kalinda admits, the rest of the truth hidden behind those dark eyes. "She likes to make my life complicated."

 

"Girlfriends will do that," Alicia risks, pulling out into traffic.

 

"She's not my girlfriend," Kalinda sighs, and there's more defense in the answer than the question warrants. "Hey, do you want to get a drink instead?"

 

"It's been a long day," Alicia says with a sigh of her own. "But I have some wine at home." It's an easy offer to make, because Kalinda doesn't make social calls; only work has ever brought her over Alicia's threshold, like a vampire with billable hours, always waiting for an invitation.

 

"Okay," Kalinda replies, and it stuns them both into silence for the rest of the drive.

 

They're in Alicia's kitchen (and this one has always just been hers, not the one Peter had redecorated last month) when she remembers what she's meant to tell Kalinda for a while now.

 

"You'll laugh at this," Alicia says, filling their glasses almost to the brim. Why suffer the pretense of constantly refilling when the Merlot is going to be polished off in record time anyway? "But the other week, Maddie Hayward asked me out for a drink."

 

"As in a date?" Kalinda pounces, her eyes lighting up in the expected amusement. "Wow, I had no idea she--"

 

"She doesn't. At least, not with me," Alicia clarifies. "But I assumed exactly what you did."

 

"How did you get out of it?" Kalinda quizzes, moving around the counter to invade Alicia's space. Kalinda seems genuinely fascinated for once, searching Alicia's face for something Alicia can't begin to identify.

 

"Well, I said I was flattered. But then she said she meant just as friends, so..."

 

"You told her you're married?" Kalinda confirms.

 

"So are you," Alicia says, because there's a conversation they haven't had yet, beyond a detail or two in passing and the shadows that flit across Kalinda's face with every mention.

 

"I was," Kalinda says carefully.

 

"Do you regret it?" Alicia presses, and there's the spike in her pulse like she's got a tricky witness cornered on the stand.

 

"Every day," Kalinda admits. "Do you?"

 

"How can I?" Alicia asks. "I can't regret my children."

 

"When I asked you for that first drink, if you had known..." Kalinda isn't at ease with asking the question, but she can't seem to help herself, sipping cautiously at her wine.

 

"That you're 'flexible'?" Alicia confirms.

 

"Yeah," Kalinda says. "Would you have let me down gently, too?"

 

Alicia laughs, and it feels good to hear it echo back from the kitchen walls.

 

"For you, Kalinda, I might have just said 'yes'," Alicia says, and it's supposed to sound like a punchline, just another joke to form a band-aid on their bruised and battered friendship, but the laughter leaves her breathless and it sounds quite different.

 

"What about tonight?" Kalinda says, and she rolls her shoulders back in a way that Alicia finds predatory, like something feline about to pounce on its prey. "What if I asked you a question that could be... misinterpreted?"

 

"I can't comment on hypotheticals," Alicia says, placing her wineglass back on the counter, before taking Kalinda's from her and doing the same. This is a reckless game, she knows, but there's been that gnawing curiosity every since finding out about 'Leela', and in the dark sometimes Alicia lets herself confront the fact that she felt more jealous of Peter than Kalinda.

 

"Alicia," Kalinda tries, and there's warning laced in each syllable. Alicia knows how this dance plays out, the denials and the frustration and she already has that with Will. So she lays a palm on Kalinda's cheek, and when she doesn't pull away, Alicia leans in close enough to kiss her, a warm meeting of lips that only lasts a few seconds.

 

"I'm married," Alicia reminds her, and the accusation still lingers.

 

"So was I," Kalinda replies, and this time she's the one extending her hand, thin fingers pressing at the base of Alicia's neck, drawing her into a kiss that's not brief, not even close to chaste. Alicia tastes her favorite Merlot on Kalinda's tongue, and finds herself craving more.

 

"Is this a bad idea?" Alicia whispers when they part, foreheads resting against each other's.

 

"Maybe," Kalinda says, and the honesty is enough for Alicia.

 

"Come on," she insists, leading Kalinda by the hand towards the bedroom. It's an invitation Kalinda finally seems happy to accept.


End file.
